A Hands-Free Joystick to Help Quadriplegics Get Around

Zohar Lazar

Quadriplegics get around by using their mouths, piloting their wheelchairs with breath-controlled “sip-and-puff” systems. But those commands can be difficult to learn, and sucking at a straw all day is exhausting. So researchers came up with a more user-friendly system: Turn the tongue into a joystick, using a magnetic piercing and a wireless headset.

Northwestern dermatologist Anne Laumann joined the research team but soon learned that there was no medically approved protocol for sticking tongues—“they can bleed and bleed,” she says. So Laumann talked to oral surgeons, scoped out piercing parlors, and helped create a process that is both dependable and safe. One of her first volunteers was Martin Mireles, a former church youth group leader paralyzed by a stray bullet. He’d been sipping and puffing for years, but after about a week with his lingual titanium barbell, he was a convert.

Following a successful trial—all the subjects preferred the tongue-drive system to their current devices—researchers are working to make the tech available to quadriplegics everywhere. Their goal is to shrink the headset down to a simple retainer with a battery less than one-fifth its current size. Subjects would touch each tooth to signal a different command, so the device could control smartphone apps, lights, doors—and even someday, Mireles hopes, a car.